A family with two children from Göttingen is spending the New Year of 2017/2018 in the popular German destination of Lanzarote in the Canary Island. It is a classical family: mother, father, two little children. Both parents are working, from home, she is highly paid, there is no financial pressure. Children are in child care during the day. Everything seems to be just fine. Perfectly fine.
However, the pressure towards being fine is having its price for the husband, Henning. He shows signs of burn-out, both psychological and physical. He has panic attacks and needs air - both practically and symbolically. Once in Lanzarote, he remembers an episode he experienced many many years ago, when on vacation with his own parents and her sister. An episode that has to do with a different kind of parenting and family pressure. Maybe after that he will see things differently.
Juli Zeh is a very popular author in Germany that I´ve long heard about but only now had the chance to get familiar with, through the audiobook of Neujahr. The topic of the book may be boring - I am not a big fan of parenting, I mean I am doing parenting every day but don´t feel like spending my literary time reading and thinking about it - but it´s a new angle and way of seeing that she outlines in the book therefore it ended up by captivating my attention.
Indeed, the parenting projections nowadays, particularly in Germany, where the social state allows a higher flexibility - at least in some part of the country - may be very hard on parents. The expectations are high, from kindergarten onwards and parents with more than one child and a heavy job would end up sooner or later by feeling the burn-out. You are requested to be present in the life of your children, but also to outperform at work. The babysitting culture is not encouraged and therefore some traditional local parents will insist to do it all on their own. Things changed from the sociological points of view in terms of parenting and the expectations too. Parents staying at home for having more time to play with their children was unthinkable one generation ago. Children used to play with other children, not with parents, when nowadays, in Germany at least, parents do have enough time to take once in a while a day off to spend full time with their children. I don´t know what is good and what not, but I only notice that things are very different from the time when I grew up.
Hence, the pressure that the poor Henning - he is the main voice of the story - feels heavier and heavier every day. The feeling of running in a circle, like a headless hamster, is real and I´ve appreciated the book for creating the right ambiance. It´s also outstanding that, such a casual topic was so good written.
At least for the German language skills, I would keep reading more by Juli Zeh. I´m glad I was curious enough to listen the book until the very end. There may be sometimes perks of getting out of the literary comfort zone.
Rating: 3 stars
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